Voices of the Spaghetti Western – “The Last Ride to Santa Cruz”

 As we know most of the Euro-westerns were co-productions from Italy, Spain, Germany and France which incorporated British and American actors to gain a worldwide audience. The films were shot silent and then dubbed into the various languages where they were sold for distribution. That means Italian, Spanish, German, French and English voice actors were hired to dub the films. Even actors from the countries where the film was to be shown were often dubbed by voice actors for various reasons such as the actors were already busy making another film, they wanted to be paid additional salaries for dubbing their voices, the actor’s voice didn’t fit the character they were playing, accidents to the actors and in some cases even death before the film could be dubbed. 

I’ll list a Euro-western and the (I) Italian, (S) Spanish, (G) German and (F) French, (E) English voices that I can find and once in a while a bio on a specific voice actor as in Europe these actors are as well-known as the actors they voiced.

Today we’ll cover “The Last Ride to Santa Cruz”

[(I) Italian, (S) Spanish, (G) German, (F) French, (E) English]

Rex Kelly – Edmund Purdom (G) Holger Hagen, (S) Simon Ramirez

Pedro Ortiz – Mario Adorf (G) Rainer Brandt, (S) Jose Guardiola

Elizabeth Kelly – Marianne Koch (G) Marianne Koch, (S) ?

Carlos – Thomas Fritsch (G) Thomas Fritsch, (S) Jose Moratalla

José – Klaus Kinski (G) Klaus Kinski, (S) Fernando Nogueras

Fernando – Sieghardt Rupp (G) Sieghardt Rupp, (S) ?

Woody Johnson - Walter Giller (G) Walter Giller, (S) Rafael De Penagos

Juanita – Marisa Mell (G) Marisa Mell, (S) Celia Honrubia

Holger Hagen  (1915 – 1996)

Holger Hagen was born on August 27, 1915, in Halle, Germany. Holger was the son of Oskar Hagen and Thyra Leisner and the brother of actress Uta Hagen [1919-2004]. His family moved to Madison, Wisconsin. There he studied acting and conducting, then he worked in New York. After the war he returned to Germany. Played small roles in few movies. He was the German voice for many international actors like Richard Burton, Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Dirk Bogarde, William Holden, Marcello Mastroianni, Gian Maria Volonte, Yves Montand, Gregory Peck, David Niven, Cesar Romero, Frank Sinatra, Charlton Heston, James Garner, David Janssen, Donald Pleasence, Henry Fonda, Albert Finney.

He was married to writer, actress Bruni Löbel [1920-2006] from 1971 until his death on November 16, 1996 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.